Please welcome Kathy Collard Miller and her husband Larry as my guest bloggers today! I’m honored to have them share thoughts from their new book, “Never Ever Be the Same,” about how holiness feels in a believer’s life.
Have you ever wondered what holiness feels like? Malachi 4:2 expresses what God might like us to experience when we see the fruits of holiness that he is producing in our lives:
“But for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall.”
Have you ever “leapt” in your spirit after recognizing that your trust in God had expanded to include forgiving someone who hurt you because you recognize how much you’ve been forgiven? Or giving grace by listening with understanding to a friend share a problem—even though she usually ignores you—because you’ve experienced God’s grace? Or resting calmly in a situation that normally drives you over the edge because you know God is in charge? Or being patient when your child spills milk at the dinner table for the third time because you know God has repeatedly been patient with you?
We’re no longer fenced in and held in bondage by sinful patterns like worry, fear, selfishness, hate, resentment, and so many other binding things.
The NIV words it: “And you will go out and frolic like well-fed calves.” Oh, to frolic like well-fed calves! Can’t you just picture it? This calf isn’t emaciated; instead it is healthy and well-nourished. It has drank often from the fresh, flowing spring. That seems to give the idea that it is assured that all its real needs are supplied and it is free from concern about receiving love and care.
For you and for us, that’s the foundation of holiness: believing and trusting in God’s sovereign love that provides everything we truly need; therefore, we don’t need to demand it from people who are needy themselves.
We are still growing in this of course, for as long as we live, but the joy that comes when we cooperate with God is like skipping out of a pen where we’d been restrained. We do not obey in order to have that feeling, but how generous of God to give us the reward to bless us.
Are you like a calf encircled in some stall? Could it be bitterness, a critical spirit, a sense of entitlement, people pleasing, or self-absorption? Do you want to break free? You can in God’s power through Repentance and Surrender. Receive the healing. Get ready to leap, gambol, and frolic. God is opening the gate.
As you think of God opening your “gate” of holiness, what does that feel like for you?
Kathy Collard Miller is the author of 50 books and has spoken in 31 states and 8 foreign countries. Kathy and her husband, Larry, have been married 44 years. Larry is a retired police lieutenant who also speaks and writes. They live in Southern California, and have two grown children and one grandson. Visit them at www.LarryAndKathy.com and www.KathyCollardMiller.com.
Never Ever Be the Same: A New You Starts Today (Leafwood Publishers) offers Christians hope that they can change their destructive patterns of behavior through identifying their sinful self-protective strategies and then being empowered to trust God instead. Their book includes biblical principles, insightful stories, and helpful instruction.
Hi Kathy, thank you so much for alerting your readers to our new book. I praise God for your ministry and appreciate your heart of service. Larry and I look forward to hearing from your readers.
Kathy, it’s my pleasure! Thank you for sharing with us today! And thank you for the practical example of what holiness looks like and feels like in a believer’s life.